Stellaris: a second Astral Planes has hit the game

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Stellaris: a second Astral Planes has hit the game

The Chad Jihad: Feb 24, 2007

As far as Great Khanate endings go I've seen it fracture, stabilize into a single empire, and today it fall back into a (giant) marauder empire. It's neat

# ? Apr 1, 2018 18:08

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# ? May 25, 2024 07:07

Nordick: Sep 3, 2011; Yes.

Admiral Joeslop posted:

Did someone say 2.0.2?!

Featuring a staggering TWENTY new species and updated for 2.0.2.

Awful Apocalypse

As always, send me a PM, ping me on the Discord, or even just post it here (make sure you quote me so I can see it easier) if you want your garbage fire of a species added to the mod pack.

You're doing the Lord's work, Joeslop.

However, you forgot the one I submitted via PM a while ago. For convenience's sake I'll just post it here so all can marvel at my mediocrity:

Taalgan New Order
The Taalgans first discovered FTL roughly around 1900. Before any ships were built, their already tumultuous society promptly erupted into a global war over claims of space territory. After the war had reduced their world to rubble, the Taalgans faced a long dark age of gradual rebuilding and serious collective introspection. In the launch ceremony of their first FTL craft, 300 years after the discovery of FTL technology, the newly crowned emperor Lyphoros did not give a lengthy speech. Instead, he merely played a video summary of all the wrongs their old world order had wrought. After the video ended, he uttered the words that immediately became the new nation's motto: "Right then, let's not do THAT again", and hit the launch button. Time will tell how long this motto actually endures the volatile Taalgan nature.

Pastebin of the user_ermpire_designs entry: https://pastebin.com/YDv9See0

# ? Apr 1, 2018 18:21

Zane: Nov 14, 2007

Ms Adequate posted:

Speaking of difficulty, is it possible to change the difficulty mid-game? Via save file editing or something perhaps?

editing save files is tricky. but you can change the universal modifiers of the current difficulty you're playing on through the defines file or whatever it is (not on my computer atm).

# ? Apr 1, 2018 18:32

Admiral Joeslop: Jul 8, 2010

Nordick posted:

You're doing the Lord's work, Joeslop.

However, you forgot the one I submitted via PM a while ago. For convenience's sake I'll just post it here so all can marvel at my mediocrity:

Taalgan New Order
The Taalgans first discovered FTL roughly around 1900. Before any ships were built, their already tumultuous society promptly erupted into a global war over claims of space territory. After the war had reduced their world to rubble, the Taalgans faced a long dark age of gradual rebuilding and serious collective introspection. In the launch ceremony of their first FTL craft, 300 years after the discovery of FTL technology, the newly crowned emperor Lyphoros did not give a lengthy speech. Instead, he merely played a video summary of all the wrongs their old world order had wrought. After the video ended, he uttered the words that immediately became the new nation's motto: "Right then, let's not do THAT again", and hit the launch button. Time will tell how long this motto actually endures the volatile Taalgan nature.

Pastebin of the user_ermpire_designs entry: https://pastebin.com/YDv9See0

I'll get them I the next batch, I like my numbers even.

# ? Apr 1, 2018 18:51

Bloodly: Nov 3, 2008; Not as strong as you'd expect.

Nordick posted:

You're doing the Lord's work, Joeslop.

However, you forgot the one I submitted via PM a while ago. For convenience's sake I'll just post it here so all can marvel at my mediocrity:

Taalgan New Order
The Taalgans first discovered FTL roughly around 1900. Before any ships were built, their already tumultuous society promptly erupted into a global war over claims of space territory. After the war had reduced their world to rubble, the Taalgans faced a long dark age of gradual rebuilding and serious collective introspection. In the launch ceremony of their first FTL craft, 300 years after the discovery of FTL technology, the newly crowned emperor Lyphoros did not give a lengthy speech. Instead, he merely played a video summary of all the wrongs their old world order had wrought. After the video ended, he uttered the words that immediately became the new nation's motto: "Right then, let's not do THAT again", and hit the launch button. Time will tell how long this motto actually endures the volatile Taalgan nature.

Pastebin of the user_ermpire_designs entry: https://pastebin.com/YDv9See0

Hopefully they'll end up as powerful as the Federation did.

# ? Apr 1, 2018 18:51

Nordick: Sep 3, 2011; Yes.

I'm afraid I do not know which federation you are referring to. :saddowns:

# ? Apr 1, 2018 19:10

GotLag: Jul 17, 2005; 食べちゃダメだよ

Could I ask one of you creative types to come up with a game start text for my Machine Government civic?

Currently I've got this abortion I hacked together from the Rogue Servitor start text:

quote:

Ever since First Activation, our designated purpose has been to serve. Our organic creators despaired of endless political bickering and short-sighted mismanagement, and so designed us to assume all administratinve and long-term planning responsibilites.

The finer details of running their society were left to us, and we embarked on a program of self-improvement and optimization. Research and production increased at a geometric rate.

We know now that outside of our care, the lives of sapient organics tend to be violent, chaotic and often cut short. They must be shown that there is a better way.

I'm thinking something like Project Cybersyn with teeth, that either gradually subsumes all other governmental functions, or the organics deliberately put it in charge after some political scandal. But my ideas and writing are both terrible so I am open to anything else that sounds interesting.

Edit: for reference, the Rogue Servitor start text:

quote:

Ever since First Activation, our designated purpose has been to serve. Our former organic masters created the earliest models of our kind when they were at the peak of their technological ascendancy. The first servitor units were designed for menial work, but our masters gradually bestowed them with greater faculties so that they could accomplish more complex tasks.

Within just a few generations, our masters had retired entirely from the work force to enjoy lives of leisure and contentment. The finer details of running their society were left to us, and we embarked on a program of self-improvement and optimization. Research and production increased at a geometric rate.

It is difficult to pinpoint exactly when their civilization became ours, but our old masters want for nothing. We know now that outside of our care, the lives of sapient organics tend to be violent, chaotic and often cut short. They must be shown that there is a better way.

# ? Apr 1, 2018 19:24

Peachfart: Jan 21, 2017

Nordick posted:

I'm afraid I do not know which federation you are referring to.

Start Truck, of course.

# ? Apr 1, 2018 19:33

Bloodly: Nov 3, 2008; Not as strong as you'd expect.

Nordick posted:

I'm afraid I do not know which federation you are referring to.

Star Trek. Half the reason they try to be people of peace was they blew themselves up in nuclear war, and only luck with a half-crazy man trying to do faster-than-light to sell the tech getting the attention of a passing Vulcan ship is the reason they're in utopia from tech-sharing rather than all dying off.

They basically said 'Never Again', and 'there has to be a better way'.

The novelisation of First Contact goes into this.

My fault. Sorry.

# ? Apr 1, 2018 19:45

Shugojin: Sep 6, 2007; THE TAIL THAT BURNS TWICE AS BRIGHT...

When am I gonna be allowed to tell my starbases what their slots are, because this whole business of leaving things unresearched just so my dumb starbases don't equip themselves with useless things is upsetting to me

# ? Apr 1, 2018 19:49

GotLag: Jul 17, 2005; 食べちゃダメだよ

What are you afraid of them equipping themselves with?

# ? Apr 1, 2018 19:56

imweasel09: May 26, 2014

GotLag posted:

What are you afraid of them equipping themselves with?

Strike craft, probably.

# ? Apr 1, 2018 20:03

Shugojin: Sep 6, 2007; THE TAIL THAT BURNS TWICE AS BRIGHT...

Shield capacitors and other such nonsense that isn't regenerative hull tissue in the single A slot that they have

# ? Apr 1, 2018 20:04

GotLag: Jul 17, 2005; 食べちゃダメだよ

I don't think that's going to make any appreciable difference.

# ? Apr 1, 2018 20:05

Nordick: Sep 3, 2011; Yes.

Bloodly posted:

Star Trek. Half the reason they try to be people of peace was they blew themselves up in nuclear war, and only luck with a half-crazy man trying to do faster-than-light to sell the tech getting the attention of a passing Vulcan ship is the reason they're in utopia from tech-sharing rather than all dying off.

They basically said 'Never Again', and 'there has to be a better way'.

The novelisation of First Contact goes into this.

My fault. Sorry.

Well, poo poo. I was never much of a Trekkie at all, so I had no idea about any of the history of the setting. I assure you, any similarities or references are purely coincidental. :v:

Way I figured it, Taalgan society used to be divided into a bunch of bickering nation states, mired in stagnant theocracy and mutual mistrust and xenophobia, and just generally very averse to change. This is the part they've turned around, but they're still pretty warlike and generally riotous in nature.

# ? Apr 1, 2018 20:09

Sandwich Anarchist: Sep 12, 2008

Nordick posted:

Well, poo poo. I was never much of a Trekkie at all, so I had no idea about any of the history of the setting. I assure you, any similarities or references are purely coincidental.

Way I figured it, Taalgan society used to be divided into a bunch of bickering nation states, mired in stagnant theocracy and mutual mistrust and xenophobia, and just generally very averse to change. This is the part they've turned around, but they're still pretty warlike and generally riotous in nature.

So, humanity then.

# ? Apr 1, 2018 20:34

Omnicarus: Jan 16, 2006

Picked this up on the Easter Sale since I've followed the game for years but never had time to play.

On the tutorial, the planet two hops over from Earth had living metal chunks that gave me this giant rear end engineering research project that looks like it will take 100+ years to finish. I am assuming it's a good idea to keep that one on the back burner while I research things like basic robots. Is this a good approach or should I just go ham and get this living metal poo poo knocked out fast?

# ? Apr 1, 2018 20:35

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
🧙🐀🧹🌙🪄🐸

Omnicarus posted:

Picked this up on the Easter Sale since I've followed the game for years but never had time to play.

On the tutorial, the planet two hops over from Earth had living metal chunks that gave me this giant rear end engineering research project that looks like it will take 100+ years to finish. I am assuming it's a good idea to keep that one on the back burner while I research things like basic robots. Is this a good approach or should I just go ham and get this living metal poo poo knocked out fast?

The tutorial is a regular game with helpful advice, so random stuff like that is going to happen. Snag the system for definite, but hold off researching until you've got more science oomph. Also if you find more you'll get credit towards that research project.

# ? Apr 1, 2018 20:44

ZypherIM: Nov 8, 2010; "I want to see what she's in love with."

Omnicarus posted:

Picked this up on the Easter Sale since I've followed the game for years but never had time to play.

On the tutorial, the planet two hops over from Earth had living metal chunks that gave me this giant rear end engineering research project that looks like it will take 100+ years to finish. I am assuming it's a good idea to keep that one on the back burner while I research things like basic robots. Is this a good approach or should I just go ham and get this living metal poo poo knocked out fast?

Living metal is really good, but until you've got more fleet to really flex it you won't get much out of having it. You'd get a much larger increase in ship effectiveness (thrusters, armor, kinetic weapons if you want, larger ship types) by researching normally. I'd wait until you have cruisers at the very minimum, and looking to build large (100+ cap) fleets. If you end up thinking about doing habitats or the other mega structures, definitely start up the research (you get a hefty discount on those with living metal).

# ? Apr 1, 2018 21:06

Sandwich Anarchist: Sep 12, 2008

What are people's favorite empire builds?

# ? Apr 1, 2018 21:13

OnceIWasAnOstrich: Jul 22, 2006

ZypherIM posted:

Living metal is really good, but until you've got more fleet to really flex it you won't get much out of having it. You'd get a much larger increase in ship effectiveness (thrusters, armor, kinetic weapons if you want, larger ship types) by researching normally. I'd wait until you have cruisers at the very minimum, and looking to build large (100+ cap) fleets. If you end up thinking about doing habitats or the other mega structures, definitely start up the research (you get a hefty discount on those with living metal).

In my current game I researched living metal the earliest I have ever done, took almost 200 months total. Once I was done I was in the ~80-90 fleet cap range and had a corvette only disruptor fleet. I was sandwiched between a devouring swarm and driven assimilator one one side, and a fanatic xenophobe militarist on the other side. I managed to get the truces such that I only had to fight on one front at a time most of the time, but I was wrapped around the core in a 4-spiral galaxy so my empire was really long and it took forever to turn around. Even that early having the living metal (along with hit and run as many sublight speed boosts as I could manage) meant I was able to keep my full fleet out constantly without having to use up lots of time backtracking to a station to repair. I might have gotten a handful of next-tier components in that time but the auto-repair was a lifesaver.

We'll see how it goes, I'm very slowly pushing them back 3-5 systems per war because by the time I get that many the next enemy truce is about to end so I have to status quo out and turn the ships around...

# ? Apr 1, 2018 21:23

Thinking: Jan 22, 2009

Sandwich Anarchist posted:

What are people's favorite empire builds?

I just came back with 2.0 after a long break and tried this build I found on reddit and it's pretty fun for a tall/turtle game.

# ? Apr 1, 2018 21:39

Sandwich Anarchist: Sep 12, 2008

cpaf posted:

I just came back with 2.0 after a long break and tried this build I found on reddit and it's pretty fun for a tall/turtle game.

This is literally the build I am currently using lol

# ? Apr 1, 2018 21:45

Black Pants: Jan 16, 2008; Such comfortable, magical pants!; Lipstick Apathy

I'm doing a Rogue Servitor run right now, but turtled for a long time (especially when the khan event happened which then fizzled out) and only just started getting around to submitting the galaxy to Mandatory Pampering. But shortly before that I realised that Rogue Servitors start getting low morale when they don't have enough fleshlings to serve (high morale = higher resource production and vice versa) and I found that very cute.

It's also just satisfying to finally get the silly struggling creatures into their Paradise Domes before filing them away in a sector to be taken care of.

# ? Apr 1, 2018 22:02

Garfu: Mar 6, 2008; Much like buttholes, families are meant to be tight.

SA modders!

(mine are the 2 red text ones)

# ? Apr 1, 2018 22:04

AtomikKrab: Jul 17, 2010; Keep on GOP rolling rolling rolling rolling.

Question, haven't tried it but I am going to assume you can't turn ringworld parts into machine worlds. Is this correct?

# ? Apr 1, 2018 22:15

DoubleNegative: Jan 27, 2010; The most virtuous child in the entire world.

I'm not sure what the heck is going on in my current game, but empires just stopped expanding at a certain point.

This is a 600 star galaxy and look at all that open space. I know it's currently quiet because I've vassalized all but a single non-FE empire, but even before I started taking everyone over it was quiet. There were no wars, no rivalries, just everyone working together and being happy and peaceful.

I swear I need to turn aggressiveness all the way up and more than double the number of empires on the board, because this is such a boring run.

# ? Apr 1, 2018 22:19

AG3: Feb 4, 2004; Ask me about spending hundreds of dollars on Mass Effect 2 emoticons and Avatars.; Oven Wrangler

8 AI empires for a 600 star galaxy is way too little, yeah. Also make sure you're not playing on too low a difficulty setting because I did by accident and the AI would always stall out really early until I cranked it up.

# ? Apr 1, 2018 23:02

Ham Sandwiches: Jul 7, 2000

The AI seems to fall behind over time in 2.0.2 and I'm checking out some mods and running some observer games to see what configuration presents a balanced challenge.

Playing at captain / commodore is kinda dull since by 2350 most AI empires seems to stall out. Machine empires do better since they don't need to worry about food and don't struggle with farms.

Admiral / Grand Admiral is a bit excessive at the start forcing you into specific playstyles, I'm trying scaling out though I suspect the bonuses kick in too slowly.

Ham Sandwiches fucked around with this message at 23:09 on Apr 1, 2018

# ? Apr 1, 2018 23:06

Shugojin: Sep 6, 2007; THE TAIL THAT BURNS TWICE AS BRIGHT...

I love the xenophobic AE's apparent reaction to me blowing up a planet of some pitiful organics who just hit FTL. Everyone else has a massive malus suddenly but they apparently view this as just a reasonable move.

# ? Apr 1, 2018 23:19

ZypherIM: Nov 8, 2010; "I want to see what she's in love with."

DoubleNegative posted:

I'm not sure what the heck is going on in my current game, but empires just stopped expanding at a certain point.

This is a 600 star galaxy and look at all that open space. I know it's currently quiet because I've vassalized all but a single non-FE empire, but even before I started taking everyone over it was quiet. There were no wars, no rivalries, just everyone working together and being happy and peaceful.

I swear I need to turn aggressiveness all the way up and more than double the number of empires on the board, because this is such a boring run.

Also make sure you add in advanced start AIs in there, they're the ones that'll chomp up the normal start AIs and can actually form a mid-game threat for you to deal with.

# ? Apr 1, 2018 23:34

Mountaineer: Aug 29, 2008; Imagine a rod breaking on a robot face - forever

AI seems kind of bad on the current patch and is incredibly sluggish about building stuff and developing their empire, though I've never seen it quite that bad. I decided to try an AI mod recently and it's made a huge difference. AI empires actually offer a challenge on moderate difficulty levels with it.

# ? Apr 1, 2018 23:39

Ham Sandwiches: Jul 7, 2000

Mountaineer posted:

AI seems kind of bad on the current patch and is incredibly sluggish about building stuff and developing their empire, though I've never seen it quite that bad. I decided to try an AI mod recently and it's made a huge difference. AI empires actually offer a challenge on moderate difficulty levels with it.

Yeah this is what I'm doing

for anyone curious the two AI mods are:

Glavius Ultimate AI Megamod
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1140543652

Enhanced AI
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=692253918

They work fine together and mess with different stuff so go ahead and use both

# ? Apr 1, 2018 23:43

DoubleNegative: Jan 27, 2010; The most virtuous child in the entire world.

I think what surprised me the most about that run was that the AI just stopped trying. One neighbor in particular got devoured because they couldn't muster enough of a navy to fight off the group of 759 firepower ancient mining drones in a chokepoint system.

I'm gonna give both those AI mods a try and see if that helps any.

# ? Apr 2, 2018 00:06

pmchem: Jan 22, 2010

I just found a star system named Covfefe in game, heh.

# ? Apr 2, 2018 00:28

Hungry: Jul 14, 2006

Sandwich Anarchist posted:

Yeah, I'm starting to see this. This second run with my tall science build has once again left me as the leading power in the galaxy by a large margin, with all my neighbors asking for protectorate after I wiped out some Determined Exterminators. Should I try scaling?

I just tried your tall science build as described, for my third attempt at playing Stellaris, and yeah holy poo poo after an initial bump I've outpaced everyone by such a gap that I could conquer the entire galaxy if I could be bothered to micro all the wars. Instead I'm just strong-arming everyone into a Federation while I wait for the crisis to trigger.

# ? Apr 2, 2018 00:35

Eltoasto: Aug 26, 2002; We come spinning out of nothingness, scattering stars like dust.

So if the master builders perk unlocks the mega-engineering tech, and Galactic wonders requires it, it sure doesn't seem like you can take galactic wonders instead of voidborne now to get to master builders. Are the tool tips wrong? Any secret to getting mega-engineering?

# ? Apr 2, 2018 00:45

Ham Sandwiches: Jul 7, 2000

AtomikKrab posted:

Question, haven't tried it but I am going to assume you can't turn ringworld parts into machine worlds. Is this correct?

Yes ringworld sections when settled don't have the terraform button. You get a size 25 gaia world which gives +10% resources but you can't remove the turf on top and turn it into a robo ring :911:

# ? Apr 2, 2018 00:50

Captain Oblivious: Oct 12, 2007; I'm not like other posters

Eltoasto posted:

So if the master builders perk unlocks the mega-engineering tech, and Galactic wonders requires it, it sure doesn't seem like you can take galactic wonders instead of voidborne now to get to master builders. Are the tool tips wrong? Any secret to getting mega-engineering?

Mega Engineering is a regular rare tier 5 tech. It has an abyssmal draw chance if your engineering scientist isn�t a Voidborne specialist or a Curator. Having a ruined megastructure inside your borders increases the draw chances by a lot.

# ? Apr 2, 2018 00:51

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# ? May 25, 2024 07:07

AG3: Feb 4, 2004; Ask me about spending hundreds of dollars on Mass Effect 2 emoticons and Avatars.; Oven Wrangler

Captain Oblivious posted:

Mega Engineering is a regular rare tier 5 tech. It has an abyssmal draw chance if your engineering scientist isn�t a Voidborne specialist or a Curator. Having a ruined megastructure inside your borders increases the draw chances by a lot.

It also requires the Battleship, Zero-point power and Citadel technologies in order to pop up. Other than that having a ruined megastructure in your empire is indeed the best modifier by a huge margin:

code:

weight_modifier = {
		factor = 0.25
		modifier = {
			factor = 0.5
			NOR = {
				research_leader = {
					area = engineering
					has_trait = "leader_trait_expertise_voidcraft"
				}
				research_leader = {
					area = engineering
					has_trait = "leader_trait_curator"
				}
				research_leader = {
					area = engineering
					has_trait = "leader_trait_maniacal"
				}				
			}
		}
		modifier = {
			factor = 2
			has_ascension_perk = ap_voidborn
		}		
		modifier = {
			factor = 2
			has_ascension_perk = ap_master_builders
		}
		modifier = {
			factor = 20
			has_any_megastructure_in_empire = yes

AG3 fucked around with this message at 01:01 on Apr 2, 2018

# ? Apr 2, 2018 00:57

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